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Environment

Mayor Rahm Emanuel joined 230-plus mayors Tuesday in formally opposing the Trump administration’s proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan, which aims to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.

Legislation filed this week would give Illinois officials a deadline for deciding how the state will spend $108.7 million from a national settlement with Volkswagen over the German automaker’s emissions scandal.

A bill to be filed this month would ensure Illinois residents are able to challenge certain permits issued by state regulators, giving them legal standing to sue over environmental concerns such as air pollution and contaminated groundwater.

A coalition of environmental advocacy groups in Illinois hopes to put the brakes on a Rauner administration proposal that would relax pollution rules for eight downstate coal plants owned by Dynegy Inc.

ComEd should be allowed to proceed with plans to build a first-of-its-kind microgrid in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, a state legal authority said this week. But environmental and consumer advocates aren't satisfied with the project.

President Donald Trump’s new tariff on imported solar panels will slow – but not stop – the growth of Illinois’ solar industry, experts say, thanks in large part to the state’s recently passed clean energy law.

The city’s lawsuit comes a week after attorneys at the University of Chicago filed their own lawsuit against the steel corporation. “This Great Lake is our most precious natural resource and we must preserve and protect it,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt told representatives of a children’s health group last week that he wants to eliminate lead from drinking water within 10 years, but he has yet to offer a strategy to meet the goal.

In 2015, Noah Strycker became a birding legend after a yearlong journey across seven continents to see more than half the world’s 10,000-plus bird species. He speaks this month in Chicago about the adventure and his new book “Birding Without Borders.”

Public and abandoned properties in the Chicago area might appear a little less cluttered. The Illinois EPA collected 598.5 tons of used tires in December as part of a state program to mitigate hazards associated with them.